DOJ seized logs for five Fox News phones, possibly James Rosens’ parents’ house

posted at 9:21 pm on May 21, 2013 by Mary Katharine Ham

Well, you know how it is. When a reporter misbehaves, an administration sometimes has to call his parents…or, just seize their phone logs.

Bret Baier revealed Tuesday that, according to Department of Justice documents, one of the numbers listed in DOJ’s demands “also relate to James’ parents’ home in Staten Island.” I can’t yet find a Fox follow-up story on the revelation, but the Staten Island area code, 718, shows up twice in DOJ’s filing in the Stephen Jin-Woo Kim case. The documents are posted here by the New Yorker.

Ryan Lizza also reports on the widening scope of Fox News numbers the DOJ targeted:

In all, Ronald C. Machen, Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, has seized records associated with over thirty different phone numbers. In the filing that included the new information, the last four digits of each telephone line targeted by the Obama Administration is redacted. Two of the numbers begin with area code 202 and the exchange 456, which, according to current and former Administration officials, are used exclusively by the White House. (The phone number for the White House switchboard is (202) 456-1414.)

At least five other numbers targeted by the government include the area code 202 and the exchange 824. The phone number for the Fox News Washington bureau, which is publicly available, is (202) 824-0001. Rosen’s work phone number at Fox News begins with the same area code and exchange.

It looks like the seizures were more detailed for Rosen than for White House lines also included in the documents:

The document uncovered today suggests the government seized “call detail” records from Rosen’s work and cell phones, which would show whom he called, who called him, how long they spoke, and the times of the calls. The document suggests that the government was seeking only the subscriber records for the two White House numbers targeted, information that a government source said would include the name of the official who used the specific line.

Well, how else would you get to his parents? I’m sure we’ll hear more soon about exactly which reporters and producers these numbers belonged to— none of which were informed, despite that being standard operating procedure. And, who knows where else the DOJ has had its hands?

First they came for Fox News, and they did not speak out—because they were not Fox News. Then they came for government whistleblowers, and they did not speak out—because they were not government whistleblowers. Then they came for the maker of a YouTube video, and—okay, we know how this story ends. But how did we get here?

Turns out it’s a fairly swift sojourn from a president pushing to “delegitimize” a news organization to threatening criminal prosecution for journalistic activity by a Fox News reporter, James Rosen, to spying on Associated Press reporters. In between, the Obama administration found time to relentlessly persecute government whistleblowers and publicly harass and condemn a private American citizen for expressing his constitutionally protected speech in the form of an anti-Islam YouTube video.

Where were the media when all this began happening? With a few exceptions, they were acting as quiet enablers.

It’s instructive to go back to the dawn of Hope and Change. It was 2009, and the new administration decided it was appropriate to use the prestige of the White House to viciously attack a news organization—Fox News—and the journalists who work there. Remember, President Obama had barely been in office and had enjoyed the most laudatory press of any new president in modern history. Yet even one outlet that allowed dissent or criticism of the president was one too many. This should have been a red flag to everyone, regardless of what they thought of Fox News. The math was simple: if the administration would abuse its power to try and intimidate one media outlet, what made anyone think they weren’t next?

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Yes the IRS should be in charge of Obamacare and the Rats and Rinos should legalize some more illegals since a couple of Visa over stayers bombed Boston and this administration has been fast and furiously releasing criminal aliens!

How many times have we seen this movie? And we’re still shocked at how it always unfolds?
When you’re the smartest guy in the room, and you’re so dead certain that your vision is the only one any decent person could possibly have, there is no limit to what you can justify doing. Or more to the point, no limit to what you WILL justify doing.
And with the adoring masses cheering you on, there is no level of depravity you won’t go beyond, all the while piously telling yourself that it’a all for “the greater good”!

At least we seem to finally have bipartisan outrage about this intrusion. This president and his administration are incorrigible. And they could care less. Dying to know what the West Wing pow wow with the lefty bloggers was about. Oh to be a fly on the wall.

At least we seem to finally have bipartisan outrage about this intrusion. This president and his administration are incorrigible. And they could care less. Dying to know what the West Wing pow wow with the lefty bloggers was about. Oh to be a fly on the wall.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, everybody. (Laughter.) How do you like my new entrance music? (Applause.) Rush Limbaugh warned you about this — second term, baby. (Laughter and applause.) We’re changing things around here a little bit. (Laughter.)

Seven Percent Solution on May 21, 2013 at 9:56 PM

Seven Percent Solution:Good catch 7%,

and ya,a Utopian NeverLand,and maybe,FLOTUS could arrange for
another trip tp Spain!:)

“At what point, then, should one resist? When one’s belt is taken away? When one is ordered to face into a corner? When one crosses the threshold of one’s home? An arrest consists of a series of incidental irrelevancies, of a multitude of things that do not matter, and there seems no point in arguing about one of them individually…and yet all these incidental irrelevancies taken together implacably constitute the arrest. ”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The classic tale of how one’s extreme arrogance leads to their eventual downfall. Sometimes it’s swift, sometimes it’s gradual, but it’s always a certainty. And it always involves those who believe firmly in their heart that they will defy the odds.

Perhaps wrapped up with a bow on it or perhaps not….but the bottom line Obama response is going to be the same one he always uses….A sneer a raised middle finger and “what are ya’gonna do about it punks?”…So far it’s worked just fine.

Obowma has infested and entrenched the Departments and Bureaucracies of this Nation with like minded individuals that believe his ideology…

Once in place, all they needed was the “OK to Go!”, and they got it…

… Now we are supposed to believe that Obowma wasn’t told of all these scandals to keep him safe?

No, the bigger picture is not Obowma himself…

… but the entirety of the political Left and the Democrat Party as a whole.

That needs to be what the next election is about, and rooting out the ideology that would destroy this Country…

Seven Percent Solution on May 21, 2013 at 10:25 PM

Still, their downfall is inevitable. It’s rooted in who we are. Imperfect souls who think we can be bigger than God, and subsequently get theirs in the end.

Obama is the epicenter by his own volition. His ego and perceived invincibility made it so. But the Dems have had their fate of destruction cast long ago when they declared war on all political opponents in a quest for total power.

What conservatives need to do is present a compelling reason why people should vote for them. Winning by attrition won’t work, as evidenced by the GOPe in 2010 when they were handed the House and did nothing with it (which is why faith needs to be put on the candidates, not on the failed party).

Why are people shocked by this? Obama has been allowed to break the laws time and again and thumb his nose at us afterwards everytime.

He has done it again. Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012, she is the very person most likely to have been Obama’s attack dog against the conservative organization.

But did Obama fire her… Oh he11 no, instead Ingram has been placed in charge of ObamaCare. Obama just laughs and thumbs his nose at us.

Its chilling. My Dad was a Tea Party organizer and his group leaders complained a long time ago about not getting a tax exempt status for their organization. When I think that my Dads friends and possibly even my Dad rated a closer look by the government just makes me scratch my head. These guys are the salt of the Earth and they’re being looked at as criminals by the Obama people.

nEWS MEDIA and their parents?! Oh, it is SO time to send someone to JAIL! This administration is so out of control it is scary!

Meanhile I wounder if they found out who in the upper level administration leaked that it was Israel who attacked Syria a week or so ago, for which the Obama administration apologized for (which makes it all better when they do something wrong, right?).

nEWS MEDIA and their parents?! Oh, it is SO time to send someone to JAIL! This administration is so out of control it is scary!

Meanhile I wounder if they found out who in the upper level administration leaked that it was Israel who attacked Syria a week or so ago, for which the Obama administration apologized for (which makes it all better when they do something wrong, right?).

easyt65 on May 22, 2013 at 8:12 AM

That’s a serious leak, and I’d like to see a Congressional hearing on that one too. It’s much like the leak a year or two ago about Israel getting permission from Azerbaijan to refuel their planes on a possible attack on Iran.